Spike Lee is the best American visualist in film today and I'll stand on Martin Scorsese's editing table in my Chuck Taylors and say that!
Just saw "When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts", Spike Lee's four hour HBO Documentary about Hurricane Katrina. A monumental undertaking that manages to be poignant, hillarious, tragic, inspiring and about a dozen other adjectives.
I've followed Lee since "School Daze" and the Mars Blackmon era, but after "Do The Right Thing" he became a semi-permanent fixture on my list of favorite directors. It seems that every third movie or so puts his squarely in the top three again. And then I forget, and my appreciation of him fades like a high school memory.
Nevermore.
This movie should seriously be required viewing in American High Schools. They could spread it out over a week. No. Seriously.
I could go into detail about the film but, Jesus. Did I mention it's four hours long. I don't have enough room or time to write about the whole thing, but believe me. I'd love to. It's enough to say that the film covers just about every concievable detail regarding the storm, the aftermath and the recovery. Lee even found and interviewed the guy who told Cheney to go fuck himself during his Mississippi photo op.
I don't know if and when this is coming out on DVD, but anyone interested in watching it, drop me a line. I DVR'd it and I'll probably burn it to disc if you wanna borrow it. Some parts are pretty rough, though. If you can go through the whole thing without crying at least once, then you might wanna get a hug every once in a while. You need it.
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